Extenuating Circumstances
by Piper1019
Summary: One-shot! Hermione finds Draco beaten to a bloody pulp in the dungeons. Does she help him? Does she leave him? Does she know about his condition? Does he live?


A/N: Each chapter under this title will be a different one-shot involving Draco and Hermione in extremely unlikely situations (hence the title) that might involve them not hating each other by the end of it. It will be updated whenever I get another crazy idea to have them end up together. :) Enjoy!

Disclaimer: I don't own any characters.

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Extreme Situation

"Alright, spill. What have you two done now?" she asked afraid of the answer.

Harry and Ron had come into the common room looking extremely smug, yet guilty at the same time.

"We haven't done anything, Mione. Honest."

"Okay. Now I know you're lying."

They said nothing.

"Ron, you're a prefect. You can't just go around doing whatever you just did, and I know you did something so don't try and deny it."

"It wasn't our fault," Harry chimed in.

"Yeah, he started it," agreed Ron.

"He who? Oh no. Malfoy?! You didn't. Please tell me you didn't. He's a prefect! And you're head boy, Harry! Are you two trying to get expelled?! What did you do?" she shrieked.

"We didn't do anything you wouldn't have done," Harry began.

"Somehow I highly doubt that," she interjected.

"You should have heard all of the things he was saying," Harry tried to explain while Ron nodded in agreement. "He was saying horrible things about my mum and dad, Ron's mum and dad, and you!"

Hermione let out a huff. "Look you two, I know Malfoy is a horrible, foul and evil git, but you can't let him get to you. He knows exactly how to make you snap and he gets you every time. And who ends up getting in trouble? You."

They were looking down at their feet. They looked like two small children who had just been scolded by their mother for trying to steal cookies from the cookie jar before dinner. She felt bad for yelling but she just didn't want them to get into any trouble. Especially not in their last year.

"Just...please tell me you didn't kill him."

"We didn't," Harry assured her.

"Good," she said sounding relieved. "Thank you for defending my honor and everything but next time don't worry about it. No matter how many times you hit him, he won't change."

She walked over to them and pecked both of them on the cheek. "It's getting close to curfew, I should go patrol the halls. You finished your rounds, right?"

They nodded. "Okay. I'll see you later."

Harry and Ron stared wearily at her retreating back.

"What if she finds him?" Ron asked worriedly. "She'll know it was us and she'll kill us. I reckon we went too far this time, mate."

"I know. But he deserved it. We have to go move him. Let's go."

---

Hermione made her way down to the dungeons.

Better start with the Slytherins and work my way up to the more cooperative houses.

She was in no way scared of the Slytherins. They might now a few dark spells, but she knew more spells than any of them combined.

She walked with her wand lit and out in front of her. Then she saw something towards the end of the hall. It was too far away to make out exactly but from what she could see it looked like a person hunched over on the ground.

"Hey!" she yelled.

To her surprise two figures stood up abruptly. Their hoods were up so she didn't recognize them but they looked like they had been dragging something.

Then...they ran.

She darted after them. They ran down the hall and turned left. By the time she got to the end of the hall they were gone.

---

"We have to hurry. She usually starts down here," said Harry as he and Ron emerged from a portrait.

"Look. He's still there," said Ron. "Let's drag him around the corner and hide him in the bathroom."

"Wait. We better modify his memory so he won't remember it was us," said Harry as he pulled out his wand. "_Obliviate!"_ he whispered. "Okay, you grab his feet and I'll-

"Hey!" someone shouted behind them.

They looked up. "Bloody hell! It's her. Run!" Ron whispered.

They got up and ran as fast as they could around the corner. They could hear her footsteps following.

"Frog's wart," Harry gasped at a portrait and he and Ron dove in for cover.

"Do you think she'll find us?" asked Ron still panting from their sprint.

"No. I don't hear her coming. Good thing too. If she saw us she would have hexed us into oblivion."

---

"Damn!' she said as she rounded the corner and found the hallway empty.

She walked back to see what the two people had been dragging. She had been so busy trying to catch them that she had ran right passed it the first time without looking at it.

Upon closer inspection, she saw that it wasn't an 'it' at all, but a 'who.'

"Oh my god!" she gasped as she put her hand over her mouth.

Her wand lit up the bloodied and bruised body of Draco Malfoy. He lay before her in a heap of robes. Both of his eyes were practically swollen shut and bruised. He was bleeding from his nose and mouth and even had a gash across one of his arms.

"Malfoy! Wake up!" she hissed, shaking him.

She could see him struggling to open his eyes. He managed to open them half way, then tried to speak. "G-Granger..." he whispered barely audible, spitting out blood. "H...hem...hemophilia," he managed to get out before passing out again.

"Oh no! Malfoy! _You_ have hemophilia? If I don't get help soon, he'll bleed to death!" she said in a panic.

Would that be so awful? an evil little voice said in her head. _You hate him. Why should you save him? Just turn around...leave...someone else will find him._

an evil little voice said in her head. 

"No! If he dies it'll be my fault. I can't, no, I won't let him die. No matter how horrible he is. _Mobili Corpus!"_

Draco's body rose slowly off of the ground.

"Snape. Have to find Snape," she kept muttering.

She reached the door to his office and didn't even bother to knock. "Professor! Come quick! Help!" she yelled.

Snape emerged from his office wearing a black bath robe, his hair still wet.

So he does wash his hair, she thought before remembering the current situation.

"Miss Granger, what the hell happened to him?!" Snape roared.

"I don't know! I found him like this. Professor, he has hemophilia!" she screeched practically rendering the man in front of her def.

Snape's eyes widened with horror. "Come inside. Quick," he snapped. "Put him there," he said motioning towards a black leather cot.

She set him down and waited for further instructions.

"I shall take it from here."

"But-"

"Go! I will contact Madame Pomfrey. She'll help."

Hermione nodded and left the room while Snape ran about his office getting different potions.

She was halfway down the hall when it occurred to her.

Harry and Ron! It was them! If Malfoy lives to say what happened they'll be in huge trouble! I am going to kill them!

She stormed into the common room to find it empty.

If they think hiding in bed is going to save them, they've got another thing coming, she thought, fuming.

She stomped up the stairs to the boy's dormitories muttering to herself the whole way. "How stupid could they be? Nearly killed him. They could've been shipped to Azkaban. They will if he remembers what happens. Don't care how big of a prat he is. They should learn to ignore him like I've done for six years! Well there was that one time...but that's besides the point!"

She reached the door and knocked forcefully on it three times before practically breaking down the door.

She saw five frightened faces looking at her. She would have laughed at the looks on their faces if she wasn't so angry.

She stared at Dean, Neville, and Seamus. "Get out," she ordered.

Without hesitation, they left one by one and closed the door behind them.

"_Silencio_!" she yelled, casting a silencing charm on the room so that no one would hear her.

Ron gulped and looked at Harry.

"Harry James Potter, how could you be so stupid!" she began her tirade. "I would have expected this from him but not you!"

"Hermione what are you-" Ron started to ask but she cut him off with a death glare.

"Ronald Weasley don't you dare ask me what I'm talking about! You know exactly what I'm talking about. Malfoy! You two nearly killed him!"

"Hermione don't be so dramatic. We only hit him once or twice," said Harry calmly.

"Or three or four times," added Ron. "And he deserved it!"

"You idiots! He has hemophilia!" she barked.

"Malfoy's afraid of gay people?" Ron asked confused.

"God help me," she muttered to herself. "No, you complete twit. I said hemophilia not homophobia! It's a disease that prevents the blood from clotting properly."

Blank looks.

"He's going to bleed to death!"

Now they looked worried.

"Good thing we modified his memory," muttered Ron.

Harry could have killed him right then and there.

"YOU WHAT?!" Hermione bellowed at the top of her lungs making both of them grab their bed covers in shock. "You're lucky I love you," she said in a deadly whisper. "Otherwise I would report you to Dumbledore. If you _ever_ do _anything_ like this EVER again, I will not cover for you. Understand? Malfoy can call me whatever he wants, bitch, slut, whore, mudlood, I don't care. I can defend myself."

They were in utter shock. Hermione had just cursed more times in one minute than she had ever done in her life.

She walked over to the door and opened it to find Neville, Dean and Seamus, huddled against it trying to hear what was going on inside.

"Did you NOT hear me cast a silencing charm?" she snapped and continued on her way down the stairs.

"So how bad did she hurt you?" asked Dean as they went back inside.

---

Morning dawned and Hermione was the first to wake up. She showered dressed and headed straight for the dungeons to see if Draco was still alive. She didn't want to think what would happen if he wasn't. Would she have to turn Harry and Ron in? Would they do it themselves?

She arrived at Snape's office before she knew it. This time she did knock.

Snape opened the door and she glanced inside at the empty office. "Oh no. He's dead!" she whispered. "I can't believe he actually died!"

"Miss Granger, Mr. Malfoy is not dead. You found him just in time. Surely you didn't think he would stay down here," he asked with his eyebrows raised. "That is what the hospital wing is for."

She turned to leave.

"Good job, Granger."

That was the first and last compliment she would ever receive from her potions master.

---

She made her way to the hospital wing. Nervous to see Draco's condition.

He was easy to spot as he was currently the only one there.

She walked over to his bed and was immediately bombarded by questions.

"Where did you find him?"

"Did you see who did it?"

"How long was he there for?"

McGonagall and Pomfrey had practically attacked her when she was within earshot.

"I was patrolling a little after nine last night when I found him in one of the corridors in the dungeons. That's all I know," she lied. "How's he doing?"

"Well, you found him just in time. Another minute and he would have certainly bled to death given...his condition," the nurse explained. "We've given him several potions to try and thicken his blood, to help it clot, but we are currently waiting to see if he recovers. At this point, it could go either way."

They retreated to the nurse's office and Hermione sat next to his bed.

"Why do you have to be so damn evil? You brought this on yourself, you know," she started. "That still doesn't give them the right," she argued with herself.

If the situation were reversed, if it was Harry or Ron lying there because they had provoked Malfoy, would she say they deserved it...no.

She looked at his even paler skin. _Is that why he's always been so pale?_ she wondered. _Wait a minute. No wonder!_ She had just remembered the incident in third year when Buckbeak had cut Draco's arm. _No wonder he freaked out. He really could have died._

She heard a small groan. He was waking up.

He opened his eyes slowly and with great difficulty. At first the room swam around him but everything came slowly into focus. He heard a soft voice calling his name.

"Malfoy? Malfoy?" it said.

He looked to his left and saw the very last person he expected. "You," he said with every ounce of contempt he could manage, which given his present condition wasn't very much.

"Are you all right?" she asked.

"Do I look it?" he snapped.

She was amazed that even in this state, he could be so horrible.

"Actually, you look like shit," she said matter-of-factly.

His eyes widened in surprise. "What do you want? Come to see if I was dead yet?"

"Yes, actually. You see, I was the one that found you."

"Great. Saved by the mudblood. I'll never live it down."

She tried to pretend like the words didn't hurt...but they did. She suddenly understood what he might have said to deserve what he got and was no longer mad at Harry and Ron.

"What do you remember?" she asked holding back the urge to give him a fresh bruise on his face.

"What do you care? Did they put you in charge of some investigation to find out who did this to me?"

"Yes," she said stone faced.

"They did?" he asked before he could catch himself. He narrowed his eyes. "Stupid bitch. I don't remember a damn thing. I was walking to the common room then...nothing," he spat out contemptuously.

She got up abruptly from her chair and quite looked like she would hit him.

Instead, she leaned over and did something that even she would later regard as a temporary loss of sanity. She kissed him.

He saw her coming closer and didn't know what to do. He couldn't very well move, though he wanted to because from the look of things she was going to bite off his nose.

But when her lips met his he was in such utter shock that he did nothing at first, but just lay there in shock.

She had her hands around his face in a firm grip. She didn't realize she was hurting his already bruised cheeks.

He didn't realize the pain either. He opened his mouth to greet hers and surprisingly she responded with her tongue. A sweet and warm sensation filled both their mouths.

Abruptly, she pulled away. Still just inches away, she looked at him and saw a single tear rolling down his face. Her fingers nails had left fresh marks on his already bruised face and it had hurt.

"I should have let you die," she snarled looking him right in the eyes before turning around to leave.

"Thank you."

She didn't know whether he was talking about the kiss or the fact that she had saved his life, but she didn't care.

She had just kissed Draco Malfoy, her worst enemy......and she hadn't hated it.

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And that's were I stop. At the first signs of attraction. :)

The End! I really like that one. I don't know why. Please review and tell me what you think.

Like I said, all the one shots will be crazy, but serious situations that would never actually happen.

The next one: a bit of a role reversal; Hermione has a potentially fatal problem. Will Draco help?


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